Colleen Herman is an artist based in New York. Here, shares the exhibits she saw recently, including sculptor Simone Bodmer Turner’s new solo show.
Can you talk about the most recent exhibits you saw?
Proximity to some of the world's best museums, galleries, and pop up exhibitions
makes living in New York City a real dream. Seeing heroes and friends -
sometimes side by side - is so so special. I try to get to two shows a week?
Sometimes less, sometimes more! but that's about average. Here's a quick
rundown of what I've seen lately - hope you can get to them before they close!
One of my best friends, Simone Bodmer-Turner, opened up her solo show, Take Part In, at Matter last week. She's made the most incredible sculptures, furniture, and lighting - some at hulking scale! There are features that invite the viewer to engage directly with the work, twirling whirlies on sculptures and spherical pullies that turn the lights off and on. The textures are yummy- and consistent - so you can really let your eyes relax on the shapes and forms she makes. My favorite piece is called Gone Fishin' --- it has a wire arc that comes up from the base that plays with space and dimension in such a wonderful way. The whole show is joyful and chic - a real reflection of Simone.
I was also lucky to catch the opening of Nikita Gale's End of
Subject show at 52 Walker St. I met up with my studio neighbor,
painter Corey Presha, and we were both impressed with the space, the scale of
the show, the materials --- the consideration to all parts making the
whole. There are aluminum panels hanging on the walls that use words to
articulate the presence of a body, and I found the nuances in the
'handwriting' of the etching evocative of certain parts of the body, or certain
bodies specifically - certain people in my life - which then looped me back
around to a more general idea of bodies : that we are all made up of skin,
blood, and bones - just the same. There is a sonic aspect to the show too, and
at some points you hear instructions that would be given to bodies on a stage -
perhaps as part of a performance. It was interesting to observe the body
response of the others in the gallery.....were people there to listen or to
act? The power of the artist, and that of the gallery - was very much
reinforced in this show, and executed flawlessly.
Another
day I spent some time at White Columns to take in Looking Back / The
12th White Columns Annual, curated by artist Mary Manning. They often share
work they see via their instagram and I have come to find the work, and the way
they share to be so utterly tender. There's always a quiet intention and a
familiar feeling of warmth and connectivity that comes through Mary's eye. The
show is super special and a variegated mix of paintings - big and small -
drawings, sculptures, photographs and a video. They reprised the video
work The Disco Project by Neil Greenberg which he
originally staged at PS122 in 1995. This showing at WC uses text by
Greenberg that provides multiple layers of context for the viewer, many
personal life details about the performers you're watching in the dance, and
about the AIDS crisis that swept New York. The performers are wearing hot pink,
and the music and movements are athletic, celebratory, sometimes heavy -
sometimes so light I laughed out loud. A true depiction of moving through real
life and loss, I cannot recommend seeing this piece highly enough.
There
are other wonderful works in this epic group show....another dance piece - a
collage by Kandis Williams, a super soft watercolor by Monique Mouton, a
spectacular photographic installation by Deanna Lawson, and a favorite
work by Jaqueline Humphries that uses black light to reveal the information
embedded within.
That same day I caught the opening of Lynn Umlauf at Zürcher Gallery.
I've been an admirer of Lynn's work for years, her hand is evident everywhere.
When I view each piece, her process is revealed to me in a series of
subsequent a-ha moments that have helped me navigate some questions and
answers in my own work. This is a special show with a range of work from 1974
until 2022, a celebration really - of her creations and life, she passed on
2-2-22 at the age of 80. Color and shape dominate the larger works in the show,
and other walls display her carefully colored works on paper, her marks
deliberate and expressive. I observed a mix of people who knew Lynn walking the
show and others who may not have met her - but her presence was so fully felt.
The energy she put into the work, through her hands - and her body -
was still palpable despite decades of time passed.
(closes March 30, 2022)
Lastly, I finally made it to the MoMA to catch the last days of the
Sophie Tauber-Arp show, Living Abstraction. There is an overarching
notion that Sophie was amusing herself through color and material everywhere
she could - in drawings, paintings, graphic and furniture design, architecture
- puppetry(!), she made everything more festive and jubilant with her hands.
From room to room, you can sense the fun she had dreaming up ways to bend her
visual language into new materials. She made art that kept the heart light and
the spirit lifted. This is timeless artwork, in my opinion, as the heaviness of
life is a never ending constant. Tauber-Arp's work exhibits the play of a
childlike mind with the precision and consideration of a seasoned professional
who values a full life of friends, nature, and beauty. The stained glass
commissions particularly grabbed me, where the strength of her compositions
provided a particular kind of balance and visual harmony -- owed to
her clear-cut color choices. It's fun to imagine the conversations and
critiques she would have with her artist partner Jean Arp, and to consider how
much influence they had on each other - pushing to further limits because of
their relationship. A show that will leave a lasting impression.
Exhibition that has stayed with you/is memorable so far?
It's difficult to list just one so I'll just give the highlight real, in an attempted
chronological order... first laying eyes on Claude Monet at the Baltimore
Museum of Art in 1991 really changed my life and that feeling informs how I
make paintings today... Then walking through the Art Institute of Chicago with
my dad and sister Shannon - and getting as close to Seurat's A Sunday
on La Grande Jatte as Ferris Bueller did in that film.....tearing up
at the Musee D'Orsay in college: which was a sharp reminder of that
impressionable BMA visit in my youth.....playing dress-up with my pal Sami to
go to the opening of the Fela Kuti exhibition at the *old* New Museum when it
was still on Broadway....paying homage to the Joan Mitchell's at Cheim and
Reade in 2018....visiting the last day of Garciella Iturbide's
photography exhibit in Oaxaca, of which she was in attendance - in platform
Converse!.....and revisiting the Met when they reopened their doors after the
pandemic lockdown to see Epic Abstraction. My love and I
cycled to Giverny on a trip to Paris many years ago - and that remains a
wonderful memory. Walking into my own show in Los Angeles to see other
*strangers* walking around on a Saturday morning - taking in the art - really
stopped me in my tracks. I've been spectating for a lifetime, and in this new
chapter - I'm finally participating and that feels incredible.
What exhibitions or gallery/museum are you
planning to see next?
Next up is a trip to Madrid --- I depart next week! Enroute to an
artist residency in Mallorca, Spain. I plan on spending a whole day at the
Reina Sofia, and another at the Prado - mixing in as many galleries and other
shows as I can muster in 2 days.
Portrait photo: Kava Gorna
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